The Crime Report (https://thecrimereport.org/category/courts/page/2/)
GOP-appointed judges hand down longer sentences to African Americans than whites for similar offenses, according to a study by two Harvard professors. They argue the current polarized political climate in judicial politics is a “source of persistent racial and gender disparities.”
A study by two Harvard law professors finds that in federal courts, black defendants are sentenced to 4.8 months more than similar offenders of other races.
An 8-1 majority said a Virginia police officer illegally searched a motorcycle on private property. Dissenter Justice Samuel Alito said that “an ordinary person of common sense” would react as a Charles Dickens character would, saying “the law is an ass–a idiot.”
A white-collar defense attorney explains how “pro-active” engagement with prosecutors has helped his clients avoid going to trial or at least present evidence that could change a case’s outcome. He calls it “trying a case in a prosecutor’s office.”
Yoselyn Ortega received the maximum term for fatally stabbing two children in her care. “It is right that she should live and rot and die in a concrete and metal cage,” said the children’s father.
Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee are complaining that President Trump’s picks for U.S. Attorneys and judges are overwhelmingly white men. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) hopes for a Supreme Court vacancy.
For the first time in 30 years a federal appeals court judge nominee — Michael Brennan of Wisconsin — is being confirmed over the objection of a senator from the candidate’s home state.
A 4-3 decision by a new lineup of judges ordered a new trial for Michael Skakel, a Kennedy family member who had been convicted of killing Martha Moxley. Skakel, free from prison since 2013, is unlikely to be retried.
Louisiana juries can convict someone of a felony without a unanimous vote, thanks to a law that legal experts call outdated and potentially dangerous. That’s what happened to Troy Rhodes, a 37-year- old African-American man, convicted by a 10-2 jury in New Orleans and sent to prison for 149 years for crimes he may not have committed.
Criminal law experts are puzzled by an Atlanta jury’s decision to acquit attorney Claud “Tex” McIver of “malice murder” but convict him of felony murder.